Kantian adjectives

[Jaroslaw Pluciennik]

Dear colleages,

On 20 February, 1996 we posted a query asking for translations of English
"Kantian adjectives" and for information about possible negative
morphological elements present in their non-English correspondents.
We are grateful for all responses. It helped us much in our goal to get some
cross-linguistic background for our main contextual analysis of English
Kantian adjectives.

The negative elements inside lexical items as well as separated words are as
follows:

Basque: -gabe
Brazilian  Portuguese: in-,  il-, des-, sem
Czech: ne-, bez
Danish: -loes, u-, in- (from latin), ikke
Dutch: -loos, on-, niet
=46innish: -ton, -t=F6n
=46rench: in-, sans
German: -los, un-, ohne
Hungarian: -tlen, -tlan
Mandarin: wu-
Polish: bez-, bez, nie-, nie
Slovene: brez-, ne-, utan
Spanish: sin, in-, im-, il-, a-
Swedish: o-, -loes, inte, utan
Thai: may,  rai

We are listing only formaly negative elements and excluding all doubtful
cases. It should be noticed that some, although rare, translations of primar=
y
negative words in English are not negative at all in other languges. It
applies also to some synonimes of English Kantian adjectives. The
non-negative translations are as follows:

bottomless: Thai: sut ca? yaN dai (beyond to measure can)
boundless: German: kolossal
ceaseless: Czech: ustavicn=E9y, German: staendig, Thai: mai  yO:thO: (not
give in)
countless: Thai: lu'a khana (beyond reckoning), nap mai thuan and kE:n ca?
nap (count not thorough beyond to count)
dateless: Polish: zawsze aktualny, Swedish: urminnes
endless: Czech: ustavicn=E9y, Polish: ustawiczny, Swedish: evig
fathomless: Thai: kE:n  ca?  yaN  dai (beyond to measure can)
immeasurable: Polish: ogromny, Thai: kE:n ca? nap dai (beyond to count can)
incalculable: Thai: kE:n khamnuan (beyond calculate)
incessant: Sloven: stalen, Czech: ustavicn=E9y, Finnish: alituinen, German:
staendig, Polish: ustawiczny, Thai: r'uayru'ay (continually (reduplicated
for emphasis))
indefinite: German: verschwommen, vage
Swedish: svaevande, vag
infinite: Slovene: ogromen, Polish: ogromny, Swedish: maengd
innumerable: Thai: lamdap mai wai (sequence not can)  or sut ca? nap dai
(beyond to count can)
interminable: Sloven: ve=FCen, Swedish: laangtraakig
measureless: German: maSlos, Thai: lu=E9a khana (beyond reckoning) kE:n wat
(beyond measure)
numberless: Thai: kE:n nap (beyond count)
quenchless: Thai: kE:n dap (beyond quench extinguish)
timeless:  Slovene: ve=FCen, French: eternel, German: ewig, Polish: wieczny,
ponadczasowy, Spanish: eterno, Swedish: evig
unending: German: ewig, Polish: wieczny, Swedish: evig
unfathomable: Thai: kEn ca? yaN dai (beyond to measure can)
unlimited: Czech: ohromn=E9y, Polish: ogromny, w wielkiej ilosci
unmeasured: Danish: rigelig, German: maSlos, Hungarian: meg nem mert

A note on transcription in Thai translations:
 /O/ =3D low back open o, /E/ =3D mid central vowel, equal to a schwa, /X/ =
=3D
unrounded high back vowel, /N/ =3D velar nasal, /c/ =3D unaspirated voiceles=
s
alveolar stop. The tones are omitted.

We should underline that some experts have excluded non-negative
translations from their sets because of our interest in just negative
morphological elements in the considered items.

We will be grateful for all your comments. All additional translations are
welcome.

Best regards



Jaroslaw Pluciennik
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Dept. of Cognitive Science
Lund University
Kungshuset, Lundagaard
S-222 22 Lund, Sweden

Phone: +46 (0) 46 222 97 58
fax: +46 (0) 46 222 48 17
e-mail: jarek at fil.lu.se,  or  jarrek at krysia.uni.lodz.pl
www: http://lucs.fil.lu.se/
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